There have been discussions on this novelty. Go to youtube and look up jar o pac on fatbeeman channel. It is not an easy thing to do apparently and can either cause the colony to swarm as you crowd them into where they don't want to be. The manipulations required apparently are just not worth it. People may do it to make their bones, but they don't do it again.

Take a medium super and put 3/8 plywood on the bottom.Cut your holes 2 3/4 inches (same size as a regular mason jar)It's best to melt some bees wax and put a couple of beads inside the jar as starter strips.A basting tube like you'd baste a turkey with works great.Place the jars in the holes (without lids ) and let the bees fill them out.I'd have a queen excluder under the box though.There is a feller in our Bee Association that does this, he brought the super and a couple of jars to the meeting.

Back several years ago I tried this and it works best if you place it above a super with 9 frames in a 10 frame super with all the frames at least half full of capped honey it will help keep the queen down in the brood box and gives the bees a place to work when the jars are filled. And by using 9 frames it gives the bees more room to access the jars, bees space is very critical, too much they will fill the space between the top of the frames and mouth of the jars with bur comb and will build up an inch or so into the jars and quit. You want the bees to build down not up. If you use a queen excluder it will lessen the chance the bees will work the jars at all. Take a piece of drawn comb and glue it to the bottom of the jar with molten wax making sure you cover the entire bottom of the jar. Do not use pint jars, if you have a strong hive they will swarm before a cat can lick his behind. Make your board where you can install 12 wide mouth jars, this will give the bees more room to work. But you still need to check your jars every few days, a strong hive will fill several jars in a matter of a few days. You may have to move the innermost jars to the outside in order to get them started working them if not they will move back down and not fill the remainder of the jars.

This is something that is very time consuming and can go south in a heartbeat, be prepared for the unexpected and hope for the best. The reward are great if all goes well, you can get top dollar (in excess of $25.00 per quart when marketed as editable all natural art) at farmers markets, gift shops, and other novelty locations.

Ok, shoot holes in my plan. Instead of using a full size hive, why not put the jars on a nuc. I haven't measured it out yet, but I think one could put 6 jars over a nuc. The only concern is keeping the queen out of the jars. I guess a nuc size excluder would do the trick.

Ok, shoot holes in my plan. Instead of using a full size hive, why not put the jars on a nuc. I haven't measured it out yet, but I think one could put 6 jars over a nuc. The only concern is keeping the queen out of the jars. I guess a nuc size excluder would do the trick.

You need a strong hive and a good flow to force them to build and fill it up. I did it with a strong hive with just one jar, with wax lines added, during a spring flow and they would not touch it.Jim

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